Indigenous Peoples Initiative

THIS ARTICLE IS A DRAFT

The Indigenous Peoples Initiative is launched as a parallel activity in the context of the Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era Project.

The vision is to secure the global participation of Indigenous people, from different cultures, in Structure Democratic Dialogues with the following goals:

1. To offer indigenous communities the possibility to "exploit" (in a good sense) this project/opportunity for their own benefits both it terms of pursuing their goals and of raising additional funds to do more work.
2. To create communication channels between indigenous people and the participants in the five continents through which the wisdom and knowledge that indigenous people have in matters of symmetrical and egalitarian political organisation. find their ways to the explorations and designing of new systems of governance

Strategic Plan

1. The first step is the identification os the stakeholders and those who wish to be part of this initiative; definition of roles.
2. The second step is the formation of a Steering Committee with dedicated and inspired members who will lead the initiative for a period of 2 or 3 years.
3. The third step will be for this Steering Committee, in close communication with the whole committee, to develop a project plan with a few specific targets. Some preliminary questions include:
   • Documentation of the geography, diversity, characteristics, key assets and key characteristics, contacts etc. of the various communities
   • How to put in place a system/network to be able to document, research, bring together ideas and people from these communities.
   • How do we integrate this initiative in the largest initiative and how our learnings from the indigenous people are used as input to the larger project and are included in the final deigns and the Manifesto.
4. Find ways to finance the various stages of this initiative. Define Plan A and Plan B for different levels of our ambition.
5. The crowdfunding approach will require definition of those sites/people who would be more receptive to these needs.
6. Identification of multiple sponsors for different activities; might require different approaches.
7. Identification of funders and preparation of respective applications.

Steering Committee

Names have been placed here as indicative without any communication yet...

Coordination

• Alexis Karkotis
• Aleco Christakis

Members

• Laura Harris
• Janet Mcintyre
• LaDonna Harris
• Brittany Simmons
• Kate Cherrington
• Norma Romm
• Peter Jones
• Paul Hays ??
• Gayle Underwood ??

Relevant Literature

Indigeneity, an Alternative Worldview: Four R’s (Relationship, Responsibility, Reciprocity, Redistribution) vs. Two P’s (Power and Profit). Sharing the Journey Towards Conscious Evolution [1] by La Donna Harris and Jacqueline Wasilewski (2004)